iPhone Tweaks

One of the advantages of the Control Center and Notification Center in iOS is their accessibility. Pulling up one or the other can be accomplished from anywhere, by dragging up or down from the edge of the display. Apple has cleverly prevented these items from being accidentally invoked while a full-screen app is in progress, such as a game.

Grabbers are the first thing to appear when an app is in full screen mode. Once the grabber appears, it must be dragged directly in a second step before the Notification Center or Control Center will slide out. Grabbers are built into iOS, but for those who are not fans of grabbers, they can be turned off with the free jailbreak tweak NoGrabber.

There are many things that can be accomplished during an ongoing phone call on the iPhone. Users with GSM models (like those on AT&T) can even send and receive cellular data while talking. One drag about iOS is the fact that performing actions such as sending an email or creating a reminder while on a call means exiting the Phone app.

Sure, the phone conversation can continue, but access to the in-call controls will be lost until the Phone app is reopened manually. Enter the jailbreak tweak CallShare. Once installed and configured in the Settings, CallShare brings multiple functions directly to the Phone app. Just tap the contact name or phone number during a phone call to start.

Adjusting the display brightness on an iOS device has become easier thanks to the release of Control Center in iOS 7. One swipe from the bottom of the screen makes it possible to adjust brightness with a slider, instead of navigating through Settings. For those who change their display brightness often there's an even easier solution for jailbreakers.

StatusBright brings screen brightness adjustments directly to the iOS 7 home screen status bar. Once the tweak is installed, there are no settings to configure. A swipe from left to right along the status bar at the top of the screen will increase brightness. Swipe to the left to dim the screen. This swipe action along the status bar acts as a built-in slider that can change the brightness at any time.

One great thing about the iOS Mail app is the ability to mark emails as unread. This can help remind the user that messages are waiting and need to be reviewed again later. Some prefer to use this trick instead of flagging or leaving the mail marked read. Stock iOS 7 has no such function in place for the Messages app.

Now thanks to the jailbreak tweak Unread, iMessage and SMS threads can be marked unread. Once installed from Cydia, the Unread tweak has no settings to configure. Simply open the Messages app and toggle the read / unread status by tapping and holding a message thread. The blue dot indicating whether or not a message has been read will display accordingly.

The original Auxo is a must-have jailbreak tweak for iOS 6. Besides improving app switcher functionality, Auxo brought a fresh design to the firmware that took advantage of the larger iPhone 5 display. Apple has since integrated similar app cards into iOS 7, showing a thumbnail of each app screen when switching apps.

Now designer Sentry is working on a sequel for iOS 7 appropriately named Auxo 2. The tweak is currently in development and should be released later this month. When it comes to Auxo 2 functionality, Sentry released screenshots and the Vine videos below to keep jailbreak fans on the edge of their seats.